Fated Free Will
by Target22
Summary: After the arduous life of Hyrule's "Hero of Time", and a millennium as the Shade, Link thought he would finally be allowed to drift away. The Goddesses have other plans. One last time, they will call upon their hero and ask him to endure one more challenge. They want to show him what his world looks like through their eyes. Then they want him to change it.
1. Chapter 1

"Am I dead?"

In his ringing ears the words seemed hollow and metallic. They flitted from his mouth without the guidance of his tongue or teeth.

"Yes," a voice answered. Unlike the words that escaped him, the stranger's words were melodious and deep. The sound barely resonated in his ears yet the vibrations shook him to his core. "But then, you've been dead for some time, haven't you?"

His thoughts echoed with the same hollow and metallic sound as his voice. "I have. But I thought I was done now."

Wherever he was, he remained blind to it. Not with a blindness void of light, but a perpetual paleness hung in front of his eyes. He couldn't tell if he was turning his gaze from any direction to another; the same pale blindness met him everywhere. It was faultless, with no deviations in it's endless, smooth, illumination.

The stranger's voice hummed, filling him with the same gentle quiver as before. "You are done, courageous soul. But I wanted to show you something before you slept."

"I'm so very tired."

"I know you are."

He could feel the stranger's empathy wash over him like a wave of warm water, caressing him in a way he'd never experienced. He never had a mother or father, or even a successful lover. If he had though, this is how he imagined it would have felt.

"What did you want to show me?"

The warmth suddenly left him naked and alone.

"Not yet," the stranger said. "This place is not easy to understand. I will have to leave you for a moment so you can recreate yourself."

"What do you mean?" He waited for the stranger to speak again but his ears rang emptily. "Are you there?"

The ringing grew louder as his mind frantically tried to fill the vacuum with noise. He'd felt this before. In horror, he realized he was condemned to the same hell he'd just endured for a millennium. But this was worse. This was so much worse.

"Please!" he cried. The plea for mercy didn't travel through his throat or mouth. It erupted from him at the same speed as his thoughts. "I can't do this again!"

Last time he had a body to command. Stiff, rigid, and decomposing but limbs to move all the same. Not here. Not this time.

The ringing grew louder, penetrating his mind with a sharpened point. If his brain couldn't find a way to fill the vacuum with sound, it would do it with pain. Streaks of burning sensation sliced through him with a freezing edge. Layers of himself were being shorn off while he was powerless to even reflexively clench up. He wanted to cry out, to lash out, to escape the torment, but his mind was already committed to destroying itself. There were only two existences he experienced: the awesome pain, and the infinite pale.

But as one sensation increased, the other began to diminish. The pain increased exponentially, sundering what little of himself remained. At the same time, the paleness flickered. It was almost as though he'd blinked. As if his eyelids were the last things left to offer the damned soul a reprieve from his torment.

There it was again, a blink. The paleness, for a fleeting moment, gave way to darkness. When the darkness left, the paleness returned brighter than before, somehow less pale.

With what little of him remained, he focused on that difference; that brightness, that was only a single shade more than it had been before.

He blinked again, this time slower. The darkness lasted longer and the paleness radiated brighter.

It was his only function, the only intrinsic command he could muster. He batted his eyelids furiously, shifting his world from dark to light again and again.

There was more than just luminosity. Faults were appearing in his monochromatic slate. Patches that were slightly darker were beginning to take form every time he ascended from darkness. He shifted his focus to these blemishes.

With every blink, the brightness became more and more unbearable but he didn't relent. Those blemishes continued to take shape, to darken and form.

 _If I could just reach out and touch it,_ he thought.

To his surprise, just as words echoed his thoughts, the blemishes echoed his desire. They moved.

Hope, welled inside him. He focused on another blemish.

"Move!" he commanded.

The blemish obliged him and shifted in a hapless direction.

He wanted to laugh and cry and the same time. He was escaping! He didn't know why or how but he knew these dark spots were his way out of this hell. The pain lessened until it was no more than the ringing he had originally known.

He hardly noticed the improvement. He was consumed by the shaded parts before him. He realized he couldn't move single blemishes, those drifting alone. He could only move two or more parts at a time, and almost always in opposite directions. It seemed like a puzzle to him. One last Goddess forsaken puzzle for him to solve.

He had no sense of time. The only senses he had were the ringing, his sight, and moving the puzzle pieces.

The puzzle was proving frustrating but it was staving off the pain. He could only move the pieces in relation to one another. Once he realized that, he decided that the only thing to do was bring all of them together. Some were easy to bring together. They were already sitting in the same field of view. But once he shifted to a different plane, he sometimes had trouble finding his way back. Eventually he realized that if he continued in the same direction for long enough, he would eventually return to the assimilated puzzle pieces he started from. With that new knowledge in mind he made short work of gathering the last pieces. He would choose a direction and travel in that direction, gathering all the pieces he found, and drag them all until he found his original pile.

That was all he considered it, a pile. His analogy of puzzle pieces satisfied him at first but once he had all or most of them assembled, he realized that there was no fitting them together. They could overlap, or meld together, or separate into more pieces than originally. He was stumped.

The pain didn't return while he wondered about his next move but the ringing remained consistent. It only disappeared when the stranger's voice finally returned.

"I guess that's the best you can do."

He turned away from his pile, searching his sphere of empty brightness for the stranger. Until he returned to his pile, he saw only infinite light.

"What do I do with these pieces?" he asked. The words were less hollow and metallic but they still drifted from his mind without his tongue as a vessel.

"Those pieces are you," the voice said. "You are looking down at your own body, commanding it into existence."

With the words, _down_ and _body,_ his world began to shift. He focused on his pile of pieces skeptically, suddenly sensitive to direction. The pile was down, the brightness was above him.

"I'm looking down at my body?"

The stranger hummed happily, filing him with a shock of cheerful vigor. "That's right."

The pieces started shifting on their own, changing shape and direction. Their edges were becoming definite and clear while they simultaneously gained a dimension of depth.

"I'm looking down at my body."

The stranger was right. He was looking down at his chest, and hands. The dark hue that filled the pieces gave way to varying shades of color. Black and gray was replaced by red, yellow, and blue until even those colors shifted into others.

"You also have a mouth, and tongue, and eyes, and nose, and teeth, and facial muscles to move all of it."

With each word, he became acutely aware of the faculty. He did have a mouth, filled with teeth and a tongue. His eyes blinked deliberately and his nose wiggled at the thought.

He looked again at his body. Bony hands and feet stretched out into phalanges that danced at his command.

"If I have feet," he said aloud. "Then I must be standing on something. And I must be somewhere."

"Very good," the stranger said. "You are standing in a white room, with a beautiful young woman in a green dress."

Just as he heard the words, the image was conjured before him.

He gasped in surprise at the sudden clarity of his vision. There were no more blurry fragments or vague outlines with sporadic-off coloring. He was definitely standing in a white room, in the body he'd known for a thousand years, with a beautiful young woman in a green dress.

She was standing ahead of him, relaxed with her fingers interlocked in front of her. She had pale skin, flawless and hairless except for her eyelashes, eyebrows, and long blonde hair. Her dress was the same hue as her eyes, as if an emerald could be sewn like cloth. The gown started above her collar bone and extended down to the floor, hiding her feet. Her sleeves went to her wrists, and the fabric held her loosely.

She raised an eyebrow and looked down at herself, turning her palms in front of her.

"This is an interesting body you've given me," she said in the stranger's voice. She pulled at her collar gently with an amused grin on her face. "A little more modest than I would prefer but I suppose I've your chivalry to blame for that."

He shook his head. "Who are you? And where am I? What. . . what's going on?" The words trickled off his tongue, set on their unsteady voyage through the air by his trembling jaw. All of him was trembling. Now that he had a body again he couldn't seem to keep it from shaking.

The woman held her hand up. "Peace."

He slumped forward, relaxing on command. The ringing in his ears was gone. So was the stinging of his eyes and the trembling of his body.

"You are the most resilient spirit I've ever seen," she said. "You survived time travel, heartbreak, and even a millennium of death."

 _Time,_ he thought. _Time is significant to me. Why?_

"Only a hero such as yourself could sustain himself for so long in this realm."

 _Hero._

"I'm Link," he said. It wasn't a surprise or shock. If anything, the words grounded him even further. "The Hero of Time."

She nodded. "For almost sixty years, yes. Then you died and became the Shade." She studied Link from head to toe. Her fair eyebrows descended into an angular frown. "I'll spare you the sight of a mirror. You seem to be having trouble remembering what you should look like; man or shade. Close your eyes."

Link did as he was bid.

"You're the Hero of Time," she said. "You are young and healthy and strong. Your body is powerful from your years of combat and your head is kept high and confident. You're a Hylian, a descendant of Hylia. Acquaintances saw you as handsome and courageous. Friends knew you as kind and caring. Enemies feared you as mighty and bold." She paused for a moment. "Now open your eyes, Link."

Link obeyed.

Instead of the skeleton hands he'd known for so long, Link saw his old hands. The fleshy calloused hands of his first life.

"Until your mind adjusts to this realm," the woman said while Link marveled at the body he'd lost more than a thousand years ago. "You have full creative control over everything, including your own body. The only limits are your memory and imagination."

"What happens when my mind adjusts?" Link asked, looking up at her. _I created her body too?_

A glowing smile spread across her face. "You are accepting all of this well. Once you adjust, I will resume control and show you everything I brought you here for."

Link studied the woman. She looked like Zelda, his Zelda, aside from the dress. Green was not Zelda's preferred color. Often she'd chided Link for never retiring the green tunics he always wore. This woman's eyes didn't match Zelda's cerulean orbs either.

"You're a Goddess," Link said. "And I'm in Heaven."

The woman clapped her hands in delight. Her smile crinkled her face in all the same ways Zelda's did. "Wonderful!" Daintily she took the sides of her dress between her fingers and curtsied. "I am Farore. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Link dropped to his knees, jarring himself a little as his knee struck the hard surface beneath him. "Forgive me, Goddess," he said lowering his head. "I should have realized sooner."

"Link," she said in a sweet voice. "Please rise."

Slowly Link rose to his feet. "I'm not worthy to be-"

"You are the epitome of valiant," Farore interrupted. "And the most worthy of all."

Link opened his mouth to ask why. Why him? But the gravity of standing in the presence of one of the Goddesses was still crushing.

"Oh," Farore said in surprise. She was staring at her hands, which were beginning to glow before her eyes. "You're not going to turn me into one of those archaic gold statues are you?"

Link focused on Farore, doing his best to shove his disbelief aside. The glowing stopped.

"That's better," she said. "I can handle looking like your Princess, but the gold skin would have been a bit much."

"You're letting me control you?" Link asked, still despairingly perplexed.

With a mischievous grin Farore walked over and tapped Link on the nose. "You're not controlling my actions," she said. She was standing directly in front of Link, eyes glowing with a vibrancy he knew he wasn't responsible for. "Only how I look. Or rather, the manifestation of how you think I should look."

"Then what do you really look like? Surely my imagination is just a shabby comparison."

Farore beamed up at him. It struck Link as odd that a Goddess would act so girly. So human.

"I like to think I'm so beautiful you'd drop dead," Farore teased. "No sense in killing you a third time."

"Does everyone come here when they die?" Link asked. He thought the sensation of his heartrate accelerating in the presence of a beautiful woman was long since lost to him. Farore was proving him wrong.

"No," she said, still standing well within his personal bubble. Assuming such a thing transcended two deaths and whatever place he was in. "You're special."

Link frowned. "I've grown tired of being special." Not including the time travelling, he was one thousand and seventy-eight years old. Every hardship he'd endured was due to him being "the Chosen One".

Farore searched Link's eyes while slowly retreating back a step. "I know," she said sympathetically. "But such things can't be helped.

Zelda told him something similar once. He told the new hero something similar too.

Link sighed. "How do I adjust?

Farore raised an eyebrow.

 _If I created her body, how is she controlling it?_

"That's your only question?" Farore asked. "I possess the sum of the knowledge of all the most brilliant minds you've ever known and more." She tilted her head to the side. "You don't have any other questions?"

"I'm riddled with questions," Link said with a shake of his head. "But I don't know where to start."

Farore nodded. The smiles that danced across her face seemed more at home than any other expression. "We have all the time in the world, Link. You can ask each and every question you'd like." She raised her index finger. "But first, how would you like to be reunited with an old friend?"

A wave of emotion he wasn't expecting slammed into Link with a ferocity he couldn't have anticipated. It was possible in this realm, a reunion with someone he'd known in his first life. He didn't know why he knew it was possible but he was sure of it. He tried to ask Farore a question but his voice caught in his throat. Tears, as real and salty as they'd been in his first life, fell from his eyes. He didn't bother wiping them, even as Farore noticed. He'd long since outgrown shame.

"Who?" he managed in a croaking voice.

Farore's eyes gleamed with sympathy and compassion. "Create a door, Link," she said. "And you'll see."

Link turned to the wall and imagined what a door would look like. He tried to conjure it in front of his eyes but the wall remained bare.

"It's difficult with your eyes open," Farore said from the side. "Your mind will accept what your eyes show it before it ever accepts your own commands. Try closing your eyes and imagining a door behind you."

Link closed his eyes and imagined a white pained portal with a brass knob.

"Once the outline is started, your eyes will see what your mind has told them to see."

There was no magic tingling sensation or a sound indicating a door appeared, but Link turned around and opened his eyes. For a split second, there was only a shaded rectangle on the wall. But in the span of a single eyelid movement, a complete and proper door filled the rectangle.

"I did it!" Link beamed at Farore, who still looked amused at her visitor's excitement. She nodded and gestured toward the door.

Link followed her hand to the door when his breath caught in his lungs. The doorknob was tuning!

Images of people he'd known and lost rushed through his mind at a harrowing speed. Zelda, Impa, Sheikah, Saria, Mido, Darunia, Ruto, Malon, Quentin, Rauru, Nabooru, Skull Kid, Anju, Kato, Tingle, Lili, and the thousand other faces he'd known and missed from his first life assailed him. During his time as the Shade, he worried he'd forget what they looked like. He feared he'd forget the sound of Saria's music, or Zelda's laugh, or Darunia's bellowing. A thousand years was a long time to cling to any memory, no matter the impact it had on his first life.

The door swung open, and for a moment Link worried his fear was well placed. He didn't recognize the woman standing in the doorway.

She was a gracefully aged older woman. She had long silver hair and flowed over her shoulders and light blue eyes. Her skin was wrinkled around her mouth and eyes but only in a way that suggested she smiled often and laughed most of her years away. She was thin all the way around but carried herself with her head high and her shoulders back, undaunted by her age or size. She was wearing a periwinkle gown, similar to the one Link had given Farore. But where Farore's seemed to fit here less and less, this woman's seemed part of her very skin.

She looked at Link, tears of her own brimming in her pale eyes. A sad smile spread across her face as she realized Link did not recognize her.

"To be fair," she said. Link's heart spiked. "You've never seen me like this."

"Navi?"

The pooling tears fell from her eyes. "You remember!"

Link practically leapt forward and wrapped her in his strong arms. Navi buried her head in his chest and squeezed him around his waist.

"I could never forget your voice!"

Farore hummed quietly to herself and stepped backwards away from the reunited friends. No matter how many eons she witnessed, reunions like these always warmed her heart and filled her with joy. She refused to interrupt such a thing. If they desired, she was content to let them embrace for eternity.

"I spent decades looking for you," Link said, still crushing Navi beneath his love.

"I know," Navi said, still squeezing with all her might. "I watched you all those years."

Reluctantly Link separated from her but took her tiny hands in his. "Where were you?"

"I've been here," Navi explained. She looked up at Link with a sad smile on her face. "Unlike other creatures, fairies live to fulfill a singular purpose. Once we saved Hyrule, I thought I was going to die and I didn't want you to be there when it happened."

"Navi, I –"

"I know you would have wanted to stay with me until the end," Navi said. "But you were so young and had already endured so much hardship, I thought I was sparing you from an unnecessary misery."

"You died?" Link asked. It was hard not to feel angry. Link could hear his own voice in his head screaming at Navi for abandoning him. For ending their friendship without even warning him.

"No. I came here." She turned her head and smiled at Farore. "The Goddesses brought me here and told me I could wait for you, if I was willing."

Link glanced at Farore. The Goddess nodded at the two of them.

"You've been waiting here for a thousand years?" Link asked Navi.

Navi squeezed his hands. "I have. And I'd have waited a thousand more if necessary."

Link looked at Navi. In life, he'd never once been able to look into her eyes or hold her hands. She was a ball of light with impossibly fragile looking wings whose only comfort was to glow warmly near his face. He reached out and stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers.

"How do you have a body now? Did I create it?"

Navi laughed gently, the same high pitch fairy laugh that accompanied him through his first adventure. "No," she said. "I created it. This is how I've always imagined myself."

"You're beautiful," Link said.

Navi laughed her sweet laugh again and patted Link's cheeks. "Thank you. Now, don't you think you're being rude to your hostess?"

And just like that, the same instructive tone Link had crossed the entire planet to hear again, returned. Link turned to Farore.

"Thank you," he said.

Farore curtsied. "You are most welcome, Link. Now, do you trust me enough to follow me somewhere?"

Link glanced at Navi. His oldest friend seemed quite comfortable in the presence of the Goddess.

"I do."

* * *

 **Author's Note: This is an attempt at something far beyond my meager abilities and yet, I've found the best way to understand my own thoughts is to write them out. I hope you enjoy this story and the questions it asks.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Excellent, come with me." She walked past Link and Navi through the door Link had created. Link didn't think he'd created a hallway through the door, but that was exactly what awaited them, through the portal.

Farore walked in long elegant strides while Navi and Link fell in right behind her. "Feel free to ask questions," she said over her shoulder. "Navi has been here long enough to provide most of the answers you seek."

"The Goddesses knew it would help to have a familiar voice explaining things to you," Navi said knowingly.

Link almost didn't want to ask any questions. He was in the presence of a Goddess, and walking beside his best friend. He had his original body back with none of the pain he'd endured through his first or second life. Whatever this place was, he suspected its mysteries would sour his mood.

The hallway Farore was leading them through looked infinitely long, the marble floor and walls continuing with nary a sign of a door or break. Link would have liked to enjoy the quiet stroll but felt obligated to proceed with his questions.

"What is this place?" he started off by asking.

"The Sacred Realm," Navi answered evenly.

Link frowned. "We've been to the Sacred Realm. Last time it was nothing like this."

"We were on the fringes of the lowest part during those seven years. Or rather, the outermost part. The Sacred Realm has three layers, each one deeper and more immense than the previous one. We were only deep enough for the timeless effect of this place to warp our world seven years," Navi explained. "If we'd gone any deeper, one hundred years would have flown by in seconds."

"Why are we here?" Link asked. Ever since his first two adventures, time travel frustrated him to no end. Whether it was seven years or three days, Link's leaps through time left him harboring thoughts he preferred to keep far out of reach.

"When we die," Navi continued, "everyone comes to the second layer of the Sacred Realm. The Goddesses would have let you experience that layer same as everyone else, but they feared you wouldn't want to leave once you got there."

"So it's paradise?"

Navi clutched Link's arm and sighed. "It's incredible, Link. Your only reality, the only thing your conscious experiences, is love. The warmest most euphoric joy that forces you to cry out in delight for eternity."

"You've been there?"

Navi held on to Link's arm while they walked and smiled up at him. "I stopped there on my way here."

"And where is _here_?"

"The third, and deepest layer of the Sacred Realm," Navi answered. "Where the Goddesses reside."

"Nobody else can come here?"

Navi turned to Farore, unable to provide an answer herself. Farore casually looked over her shoulder, listening to the conversation the whole time. "Anyone can," the Goddess said. "But nobody does. They get lost in the folds between the two layers."

"That infinite paleness," Link said. "Is that what that was?"

Farore nodded at Navi, allowing her to resume her explanations.

"You passed through all the other layers seamlessly," Navi said. "The Goddesses brought you. That paleness was your conscious being forced awake."

"My conscious?"

Navi tapped her head with her index finger. "Your mind, your thoughts, the things that make you, _you_ , make up your conscious. Most of your conscious was contained inside you brain and body, when you still had one. The rest always existed free of it."

"That's why," Link said slowly, "I maintained some of who I was while I was the Shade?"

"That's right. Parts of your conscious are independent from the cerebrial organ of your first life. Those parts stayed with you, and in your very unique case, gave you control over a dead body. The Shade's body."

"That's confusing."

"I was confused too," Navi said. "But fairies are mostly just a conscious on Earth in the first place. Our body is minimal so that we can know things a flesh and blood mind can't."

"But why didn't I know who I was when right after I died the second time? And why did it hurt so much?"

Navi looked up at Link with sad, sympathetic eyes, then glanced at the back of Farore. "After death," she said quietly, "your conscious is torn away from your body. Damaged consciouses, or souls, need to recover before entering the Sacred Realm, so they sleep. They sleep for a LONG time. Only after they've healed does the soul finally wake up. Just like on Earth, after an incredibly deep slumber, souls often forget who they were. It comes back eventually but at first they only experience that love I mentioned earlier. Their identity slowly returns the longer they are awake."

"There was no joy when I woke up." Link said ruefully.

Navi twisted her face, an array of emotions conflicted within her. Farore, aware of the battle in Navi's heart, answered for her. "Your conscious was never given a chance to rest. Not after your first death nor during your time as the Shade. You were brought here the instant you were released from Earth.

"The pain you felt is my fault," Farore continued. Her tone was part apologetic, and part factual statement. It was the sort of voice Link knew people used when they wanted the full extent of their involvement to be made clear. Farore was sympathetic toward the pain Link felt, and probably knew he was going to feel it, but she'd deliberately made the decision all the same. "Your conscious is still suffering the effect of being torn from two bodies, with no time to heal. Even further, Your conscious had to exert itself by creating a second body to accommodate my home."

Farore said it all without stopping and without looking back at Link and Navi. Link had two questions on his mind, but he decided to lead with the one that wouldn't sound like he was doubting a deity.

"Why do I need body here?" he asked. "If everyone else sticks to their naked souls or conscious or whatever, why do I need this?" he pointed at his body and again marveled inwardly how normal and comfortable all his bodily functions felt.

Farore looked back at him with an arched eyebrow. "Your conscious has a gaping wound on it. Your body is the bandage covering it, for now. Besides." Her gaze studied Link up and down before a mischievous, un-goddess like smile spread across her face. "I always wanted to see you up close. In the flesh."

Link could feel his face warming under Farore's gaze. Navi came to his rescue with a timely clearing of her throat.

"Ahem," she said. Farore returned her gaze toward the infinite hallway and Link turned to Navi. In his first life, during the all too short time spent with Navi, she always knew exactly what he was feeling and what was going through his head. He'd asked her if she was psychic once. Not only did she deny it but she scolded him for asking such a dumb question.

The face Navi made that met Link now, was similar to the one he always imagined she would make during his talks with Zelda, or Malon.

"Not only that," she said narrowing her eyes at Link. "But a 'naked' soul experiences things differently. More intensely. Information and emotions are felt in powerful waves that shake you. They aren't spoken and heard or felt as warm cheeks and a fluttering heart." She added the last bit with one more scowl. "They are also simplified," she said returning to her narrative voice and relaxed expression. "The difficult to interpret emotions you feel in your body, are broken down to their core. Happiness, excitement, anticipation, longing, fear, confusion, and morbidity are all reduced to joy or sorrow. And both of those are derived from either love or hate.

"Here," Navi continued, "All love is encompassed in the same feeling. Fatherly, motherly, brotherly, friendly, and even romantic love are all melded into one ultimate, euphoric love, the likes of which doesn't wholly exist on Earth."

"If there's so much love, how is there room for hate?" Link asked.

"When souls wake up in the first layer and move to the second layer of the Sacred Realm, they don't remember anything," Navi said. "They get to experience nothing but joy and love for a while. But as their memories come back, they realize who and what they were on Earth. The hate comes from self-loathing, brought on by the realization of how wonderful the afterlife is, and how terribly imperfect they were as humans."

Link frowned. He knew he wasn't perfect. Even while he was saving Hyrule, he never once believed that he was infallible. But he didn't hate himself, not for being imperfect. As the Shade, he hated his immortality, and resented that he was alone for one thousand years. But he didn't hate himself for not being perfect. Nobody was perfect.

"I don't understand," he said.

Navi looked up at the ceiling pensively. "It's like, when you think back on something embarrassing you did when you were young. At the time, you didn't think there was anything wrong with your actions but as a knowing adult, you look back and groan. It's the same ways for the soul, but amplified. The soul realizes that every cruel or mean thing it did on Earth, was pointless, sometimes borderline evil. Even if, during your life, you convinced yourself that whatever you were doing was necessary to survive, you realize that _surviving_ wasn't important either.

"Not only do the souls hate themselves for the things they DID do to other people, they hate themselves for the things they DIDN'T do. Every opportunity passed to give to the poor or to help someone less fortunate, cascades over your soul with incredible power." Navi shuddered. "It's Hell."

Link was skeptical. What Navi spoke about wasn't something he experienced on his way here. From the outside, what she said sounded like rubbish. He had killed a lot of people. Evil people. Sometimes it was in self-defense, sometimes it was for the sake of others. He didn't relish the violence but he knew it was necessary. Sometimes he wondered if that was his only purpose in life, to embody the righteous violence of the Goddesses.

"What about us?" he asked Navi. "You and I killed dozens to save Hyrule. Wasn't that for the greater good." He looked at the back of Farore's head and spoke louder. "Wasn't that for the Goddesses? Am I going to hate myself for the violence done on their behalf?"

Farore came to an abrupt halt. Link managed to stop without bumping into her, and instantly regretted voicing the questions that were burning him up.

"No," Farore answered in a tightly controlled voice. She didn't look back at Link or Navi. She kept her body still, her posture erect, and her head pointed down the hall. "Not you."

That was the only answer she offered before resuming her stroll. Navi and Link shared a look before stepping off to follow her.

"I get it," Link said after walking in silence for a little while. "I mean, I don't really understand, but I believe you and understand that I'll understand when I experience it myself."

Navi put her hand on Link's arm and smiled proudly. "That's good."

"So what's next?" he asked.

"Well," Farore said. She slowly came to a halt and turned around to face Link and Navi. "Now that you're better adjusted to our realm, it's time to meet my sisters."

Link's eyes widened. "Din and Nayru?"

Farore nodded, then looked down at herself with a perplexed frown. "But this gown will have to go. My sisters make fun of me enough for being the youngest. I can't go in there dressed like a nun." She looked up at Navi. "No offense."

Navi waved her off.

Farore turned to Link. "May I?"

Link shrugged. "It's your dress. Your world."

Farore brought her index finger to her lip thoughtfully. "I saw a woman in Absistus wearing a beautiful green dress once. . . "

As she spoke, the fabric of her collar unspun itself, the threads dancing about wildly. The same thing happened at her sleeves and the hem of her dress. The fabric receded farther and farther until Link, in a tizzy of horror, embarrassment, and indecent excitement, thought the Goddess meant to strip herself naked. When the enchanted alterations stopped, Farore was still covered, but not far from naked.

Navi cleared her throat but it still took Link a moment to shift his eyes.

"Much better," Farore chirped.

Her new dress, if there was truly enough fabric to call it that, was strapless, backless, sleeveless, and clung to her body with the same tautness of her own skin. The hem exposed her legs up past the middle of her thighs and the collar descended well below her collarbone.

"What?" Farore asked when Link was still having trouble pulling his eyes from her bosom.

Link cleared his throat, finally managed to lift his gaze to Farore's face, and did his best to ignore Navi's pointed glare. "They have stained glass windows portraying you in the holy places of Hyrule," Link managed without stuttering. "You're never painted quite so. . ."

"Beautifully?"

"Scandalous," Link finished.

Navi practically erupted. "Link!"

Farore's laughter filled the infinite hall. "It's alright, Navi," Farore said. She cocked her hip to the side and smiled an amused smile at the red-blooded Hylian. "There's nothing scandalous about anyone's body," she told Link. "The shame of nudity, your natural self, comes from a very early developed self and social fear that is disguised as a desire for privacy, decency, and appropriateness."

She winked as the Hylian continued to grow flustered. "There is nothing shameful about sex either. Love, manifesting as physical desire, is natural and beautiful. The only time it becomes wrong is when people who crave that manifestation, feel they are obliged sex at the expense of someone else."

"What about monogamy?" Link asked. "The sacred bond between husband and wife."

Farore almost snorted at the use of the word 'sacred'. "It's a beautiful thing," Farore said. "Really it is. When the concept of marriage was being conceived, my sisters and I wept for joy. It was originally a man and woman who were so in love that they effortlessly vowed to have no other person. Nobody held them accountable for the oath but nobody needed to. Their love was so pure, so absolute, that other people coveted it. They wanted to have that same sort of love too. But they focused too much on the vow and not the emotion. They created rules and 'sacred' laws to hold each other accountable and completely ignored the emotions that made the rules worth obeying.

"That first couple only meant to show the other person how much they cared. If they'd known that society would take their one example and make it law for every person, they'd have never done it. In fact, if they knew that their example was used to justify telling others who they can and can't love, or how they should properly show their love, I promise you they would have been vivified."

Even though Farore's words made sense to Link, he couldn't command his body to stop reacting. Whatever power he'd been given to create himself, he could not use it to control himself.

With an arched eyebrow Farore turned on Navi. "You already know this, Navi."

Navi blushed embarrassedly. "I know," she mumbled quietly. "But I know he didn't know."

Farore let out a happy sigh and looked at her two guests. "I should bring company more often. It's so much fun." She pointed to a door in the wall that Link hadn't noticed earlier. "Are you ready to meet my sisters?"

 _Hopefully they aren't all dressed like you_ , Link thought. "Yes," he answered. _I don't know if I could handle that._

With Farore leading the way the three of them stepped through the doorway into a giant garden unlike anything Link had ever seen on Earth. The plants were massive, lustrous colored, flowers and fruit trees that almost seemed to quiver in the ambient light. As Farore walked past them, they leaned against their roots as if they wanted to reach out and touch her. With a quite hum on her lips Farore gently brushed the leaves with her fingertips. The places she touched momentarily glowed until she continued beyond.

Link was so awestruck by the plants and vibrant flowers that he almost didn't notice the two women sitting on a stone bench further down the path.

"Link," Navi whispered. She tilted her head forward, bidding Link to notice.

When Link did see the two woman he was struck by how different they looked. He'd expected them to look similar to Farore. Her body was perfect, as far as Link was concerned. Wouldn't every Goddess' body be perfect?

But the woman on the right looked nothing like Farore. She had a sage face, long and wrinkled with smoky blue eyes sunken into that face. Unlike Navi's silver mane, the woman's hair was stark white. As white as white could be. Her hair was so long it nearly touched the grass while she was sitting. She was dressed far more modestly than Farore. Her gown was a rich sapphire blue, that left her arms bare but not her shoulders, back, or legs.

The other woman looked nothing like Farore or the sage woman. This woman reminded Link of Impa. Even from a few strides away Link could see the outlines of corded muscle over her exposed shoulder blades. Her hair was kept in a ponytail, as black as anything Link had ever known. Her chin, cheek bones, and nose were all sharp and angular. Strangely enough, she was wearing armor. It was old armor, worn by the ancient warriors from a time long before Link's first life. Over the flesh of the upper, plates of metal were held by leather straps. Instead the full breastplate knights wore, this armor only fully covered the left side of the bearer's chest, where the heart was. The rest of the chest and the abdomen were left bare so the warrior could stay light on their feet and utilize the full spectrum of their mobility.

As in ancient times, the parts of the body that weren't covered in metal were either wrapped in cloth or left exposed to the world. Likely for his sake, the woman only wore cloth to cover her right breast. The rest of her body was exposed. Her feet were covered by boots similar to what Link himself wore but her legs were unencumbered by clothes from shinbone to the smallclothes she wore, accompanied by a thick leather belt.

The two women, the warrior and the sage, were chatting unconcernedly, turning about while they spoke in a way that two humans would have found rude. They only noticed the new arrivals when Farore spoke up.

"Dear sisters," she sang. Both women turned and looked at Farore. "Our guests are finally here." Both women rose to their feet and walked towards them. The warrior was the tallest of the three but all of them were as tall, if not taller, than Link.

Farore turned around to face Link and Navi, and her sisters lined up next to her, the sage on her left and the warrior on her right. "This is my eldest sister Nayru," Farore said gesturing toward the one on her left.

Nayru took a step forward and curtsied so low that the edges of her hair touched the grass. "You arrived much sooner than I might have guessed," she said in a very smooth and melodious voice. "Your fortitude is astounding. Welcome."

Link dropped to a knee. "Goddesses I'm not worthy to be here, let alone –"

"He hasn't stopped doing that?" the woman who must be Din asked Farore in a coarse voice.

Link looked up at the three Goddesses. Nayru smiled sweetly while she rose from her curtsy, Farore was shaking her head bemused, and Din had her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"It's alright, Link," Nayru said, bidding him to rise. "You spent a lifetime paying your respects to us. You needn't anything so formal here."

Link rose to his feet and bowed to the sage. "Thank you," he said.

Din strode forward as Farore began introducing her. "And this is my elder sister, Din."

Link was preparing to greet the Goddess in a way that wasn't too formal but still respectful. He never got the chance to utter a word before Din took his face in her hands and kissed him.

If fire could warm infinitely without ever causing pain, that would best describe the heat the emitted from Din's lips into Link's, and then the rest of his body. He was caught so off guard that he stood stupidly with his arms out to his sides while Din continued to kiss him.

Her kiss was deep and warm and moving. It wasn't a stranger's kiss, it was a lover's. It was Zelda's. Zelda was holding his face, bidding him never to leave her side, and kissing him like it would be their last kiss. It was their last kiss. Link knew it then and he knew it now. But he regretted the decision that had been wholly his. If he could go back to that moment, he would have kissed Zelda again and again. He would have held her in his arms until time stole the strength from his arms and the warmth from his chest. There was so much more to share with her, and he'd abandoned it all with a fleeting goodbye kiss.

"Ahem."

Link opened his eyes and realized he wasn't still in his first life. He was in the Sacred Realm, holding Din tight in his arms and kissing her fervently. One hand was tangled in her hair and ponytail and the other was on the back of her hips, pulling her into him. Din's hands slid from his face to his neck, where they stayed while she pulled her face away from Link's, but left her body pressed against his.

"There," she said in a rich voice. Her eyes were the same color as a ruby held up to the light for inspection. "No more formality."

Link took his hands off her and stumbled backwards, shocked and surprised by his own actions. Din didn't smile or laugh or mock Link in any way. She only met his eyes with an intrigued glimmer. Behind her, Nayru maintained her sweet smile but Farore was frowning and had her hands on her hips.

"You said not to kiss him!" Farore said indignantly.

Din turned to address her younger sister. "I said YOU shouldn't touch him," she corrected. "You take too much delight in such things."

Pouting, Farore turned to Nayru. "But it isn't fair!"

The Goddess of Wisdom put her hand on her sister's shoulder. "If Link wants to kiss you, you are welcome to."

Farore turned to Link, an excited smile on her face.

Mind reeling, Link tried to stutter out an excuse. "Uh. . . um. . . I . . . um . . . uh . . . I uh—"

"Maybe," Navi interjected. "You could show Link why he's here. His conscious IS still recovering."

Farore's face fell. "Fine." Even though her bottom lip was sticking out, she winked at Link before turning toward the path they'd been following that brought them to Din and Nayru. Nayru turned to follow but Din stayed where she was to hold Link's gaze for another moment before following.

Link flinched when Navi touched his arm.

"Are you okay?" Navi asked.

Sweet, sweet Navi. Despite her glares and indignant coughs, she knew Link's mind was rattled. He never understood how she knew, but she always knew when something on the inside was bothering Link.

"I had a flashback," Link said, careful to ensure he was out of earshot of the Goddesses.

Navi searched his eyes. "To your time with Zelda?"

Link nodded. "Why was it so vivid and clear? And why did she kiss me?"

Navi put the palm of her hand on Link's chest. "It's this body," she said. "Only a naked conscious can absorb the pure and raw love the Goddesses exude. With a corporeal body, when you don't understand something, your brain either rejects it completely or translates it into something relatable." Navi looked over at the Goddesses who were walking down the path leisurely, not at all bothered that Link and Navi had not yet started following. "Your brain is translating their love as that of a mother, or sister, or romantic partner, because it hasn't quite grasped unconditional love."

Link touched his lips where Din kissed him. "I don't think that's true," he said thoughtfully.

Navi frowned. "What?" She never lied and never uttered something she didn't know for sure. To castigate otherwise was offensive.

"I understand unconditional love," Link said confidently. He looked down at the human face of his fairy companion. "I love you," he said. "And you love me."

Navi blushed and glowed at the same time while her smile widened and tears threatened to pool in her eyes. She squeezed Link's hand in hers and he squeezed back. Together the two of them walked briskly to catch up to the Goddesses.

"I think he's ready," Link heard Nayru saying.

"I agree," Farore chirped.

"But are we ready?" Din asked.

"Ready for what?" Link asked aloud.

All three peered over their shoulders without coming to a stop. "To show you everything," Nayru said.


	3. Chapter 3

Everything, it turned out, was viewable from a pool at the far end of the garden. What looked like a giant bird bath, carved from a single enormous pearl, stood in a small clearing where the air practically crackled with energy. Even from a distance Link could see the light shining from whatever was shimmering from the basin.

Without a word the three Goddesses walked around to the far end and bid Link and Navi to stand on the opposite. The five of them made a circle around the basin with enough room for dozens more to join around the circumference if they wanted.

Link expected water, or some sort of glowing liquid, but when he cautiously stuck his head over the rim of the huge basin, he didn't see any liquid. Instead, he saw what could be millions and billions of tiny marbles. The tiny orbs, nearly as small as grains of sand, were rolling over each other and rippling as if they were trying to imitate water. As far as Link could tell, there were only three colors of marbles: red, green, and blue. There were far more blue marbles than anything else, adding to the illusion of water, but in only a few seconds he spotted a couple green marbles and a few red ones. The marbles never stopped moving, making it nearly impossible to track the course of any one orb without losing it in a sea of others.

Link looked from the basin to the three Goddesses and Navi. All four were staring at the pool with a sort of awe and reverence. The meaning of the pool was clearly lost him.

"Before we can explain this map," Nayru said, looking up from the basin to meet Link's confusion. "I need to explain some things that aren't known by your world yet."

 _Map?_ Link wondered.

He nodded to the Goddess. "I'll do my best to understand."

Nayru smiled. Navi and the other two Goddesses were still enchanted by the rolling marbles, giving Link the impression that he was standing alone with the Goddess of Wisdom.

"Hold your hand in front of your face and study it," she said.

Link obeyed and inspected the palm of his hand. The callouses from his first life were there along with the lines and wrinkles psychics always claimed could tell your future.

"Now watch and see, but do not feel," Nayru said.

Link focused on the palm of his hand with no idea what he should expect to happen. But as he stared at the pale, calloused, wrinkled flesh of his hand, it started to vibrate. He opened his mouth in surprise but he managed not to cry out or look away. He didn't feel the vibration, he could only see. While his hand vibrated of his own volition, he began to notice that the appendage was growing larger, outward from itself.

"Everything is made of something smaller," Link heard Nayru explain. "Even the whole of your body."

While she spoke Link realized his hand wasn't getting bigger, it was separating from itself. The skin and hair of his hand was separating outward from the muscle, bone, and blood of the rest of his hand. The sight of his own bony hand would have unsettled him had he not spent the past one thousand years "living" as the Shade.

"Your body is made of systems," Nayru continued. "Your systems are made of organs. Your organs are made of cells. Your cells are made of compounds. Your compounds are made of bonded elements. Your elements are made of atoms. And your atoms are made of particles."

With each sentence, Link's had descended to each baser component. He watched the different parts of his hands break into millions of tiny pieces. Those tiny pieces broke again. And those tiny pieces broke yet again. Somehow he knew that what he was looking at should be too small and too difficult for him to see. But by the voice of the Goddess, he was able to see.

"Every part of you and your entire corporeal world is an assimilation of these particles," Nayru said. "If you could see your world with our eyes, you would measure everything by the relation of assimilated particles. Look into the basin, Link."

He turned away from his reduced hand and returned to the basin. It only took him a moment to realize that the orbs he'd considered marbles were similar to the particles of his hand.

"This is a person?" he asked with a chilling realization.

"People," Nayru corrected. "All of the people, actually."

Incredulously Link looked up at Nayru. The Goddess couldn't see him though as she too had turned to the basin.

"And animals," she said. "And plants and rocks and the very earth you yourself walked on. This basin IS your world. Or a window into it, rather."

Link looked down at it hoping the tumbling partcles would make some sort of sense to him. Even knowing they were particles, and believing that the Goddesses wouldn't lie to him, he only saw tumbling marbles.

"I only see marbles," Link confessed.

"In a way," Nayre said. "That's all any of us see."

Link frowned, still trying to see a pattern or an image in the cascading particles. The liquid seethed with life, like the cursed amoeba he'd fought in the Zora's Temple a thousand years ago.

"Surely my world is more complicated than a bunch of marbles," Link said.

"It is," Nayru replied. "And it isn't."

"I don't understand," Link said automatically. "Even a single person is more complicated than a million tiny marbles."

Nayru looked up at him. "In your hand, Link."

Link looked back to the hand that had been reduced to particles and found that it was whole again. Not only was it whole, but a marble had appeared in his palm. Unlike the orbs in the basin, the marble in Link's hand was a proper marble. It was a smooth glass ball with a colorful piece of cloth trapped on the inside, similar to the ones children played with.

"Toss it in the air and catch it," Nayru bid.

Link obeyed and tossed the marble a few feet into the air before catching it and holding it in his palm again.

"Now drop it on the ground."

Again, Link obeyed and let the marble roll off his palm until it quietly thumped against the ground.

"The marble obeys the laws of nature," Nayru explained. "When you toss it up, it has no choice but to be sent skyward until gravity brings it back down. And when you drop it, it has no choice but to respond to gravity. It can't diverge in any other direction unless sent that way by an outside force. Particles behave the same way."

Link's frown deepened.

"The particles, obeying the laws of nature," Nayru continued, "assemble to make atoms. The atoms are elements that assemble to make compounds. The compounds combine into cells. The cells make—"

"Are you saying," Link interrupted. "That my brain, when broken down, is a bunch of particles obeying laws like that marble?"

Nayru's face was void of emotion. "I am."

"What about free will?" he asked.

"For as long as you are corporeal, there is no free will." Nayru answered evenly.

Link shook his head. "No," he said with more aggression than he'd intended. "No, I don't believe that." He believed in fate, sure. That some grandiose events must happen eventually. But what Nayru was spouting went far deeper than that. As deep as deep went. If what she was saying was true.

 _No._

If what she was saying was true, ever single action he made, every thought he ever possessed, was caused by the particles that made everything, responding to whatever put them in motion.

No!

It made sense. Emotions often were often sourced from a reaction within the body. Decisions could be traced back to lessons learned from past experiences. When he was younger Link once wondered why he never became rancher like the hero he'd trained during his time as the Shade. During that millennium he'd given it thought and realized that he couldn't have chosen to be a rancher before he left Kokiri because he didn't even know what horses were. He couldn't be one when he met Malon because he was set to fulfill the Great Deku Tree's wishes, then the Princess', then Hyrule's. He couldn't do it after because he cared too much about Navi to give up searching for her. Not to mention the moon falling, the lawyer, the demons he'd slain, and the battles he'd fought until his death. Even during his time as the Shade he realized that there were some things he'd never been able to do because of the circumstances in which he lived.

NO!

If what Nayru said was true, he never had the freedom to do anything other than what he did, because all of him was just circumstances that came before him. Every good decision he made, every bad decision he made, and those of everyone he ever knew and never knew, were nothing more than assimilations of particles reacting to the particles that reacted before them and the ones that reacted before them all the way to whatever moved the first particle. Whatever dropped the first marble.

"No," Link said shaking his head. "No, no, no, no."

"It's true, Link," Navi said from the side.

"It can't be!" Link said loudly. "If that were true, then what was the point of any of it? Why even be conscious at all if you never have control over anything?"

"Because eventually you come here," Nayru said, unperturbed by Link's frustration. "When the conscious ascends to the Sacred Realm, you are free of your corporeal body and the particles that bind and restrict your conscious."

"So none of my life mattered?" Link growled. "I was destined to make every decision I made, destined to die when and how I did. Even destined to fail to find Navi!"

"Link." Navi tried to reach out and comfort Link but he shrugged away from her, glaring at Nayru.

"None of it mattered! None of the pain or suffering I endured through two lifetimes meant anything." Then a question occurred to Link. "Was I destined to become the Shade?" he asked. "Shouldn't there have been a moment where I WAS free of my body and its stupid particles?"

Din and Farore finally looked up from the basin. They shared a look between them then turned to their eldest sister. Nayru's face finally changed to something other than a smile or a blank expression. She looked ashamed.

"Originally, no," Nayru said quietly.

The buzzing returned in Link's ears.

"What?"

"Since the particles cannot determine how they move, we can project what is going to happen by how they are moving," Nayru said, still refusing to make eye contact with Link, her sisters, or Navi. "Several millenniums ago we noticed that the Hero of Twilight was going to fail. To change that, without disrupting the rest of your world irrevocably, we needed to intervene."

"But if we'd intervened ourselves," Din said, meeting Link's eyes without a problem. "If we'd descended to your world, a gateway in the opposite direction would have also opened."

"Opposite direction?"

* * *

 **Author's Note: This is where I need your help. For those of you previously read/educated on such things, Link is facing the dilemma of free will. More specifically, he is being confronted with DETERMINISM.**

 **The textbook definition of "determinism" is: _the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions._**

 **Now, whether you believe in determinism or not, I would really appreciate your thoughts on the matter of how best to translate a lofty philosophical definition into literature. You've just read my best shot at it, particles and marbles and all that. If you can think of a better way that you don't mind sharing, I'd love to hear it.**

 **Lastly, if you want to talk about "determinism" and argue for or against it, I do so enjoy those conversations. Feel free to PM me. Otherwise, thanks for reading, more to follow soon.**


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